Oh no, we are talking about real sword use compared to aikiken again!! (It's just "Aikiken vs reality" rephrased!)

No, Jonathan, I was responding to the OP's question as quoted in my post. I explained that yes, I do barf a bit when I see some people swing bokken. I also explained why. I also explained that much depends on what is important to the person in question. Some don't care at all about much of anything regarding traditional swordsmanship. Cool. Some care a bit. Some care more. I'm not saying one is right and the other wrong for Aikido.

If you're trying to "fix" something that assumes something is broken. The fix will then depend on these larger questions. If the OP is trying to do a "cleaner" cut with proper hasuji and consistency of path then he is rapidly entering into the domain of a much larger set of skills.

You can cut straight without reaching the target. And that may be sufficient given your overall goals of training. However, people vary considerably in terms of their goals hence once needs to ask what those goals are. If the goal is a more fundamentally sound cutting form from the traditional standpoint one needs to pursue that accordingly.